14 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF A(!RICULTURE. 



conclusion, however, is soon forgotten, and, as a prominent live-stock 

 paper has recently stated, " given three years of real farm plenty and 

 prophets of dwindling food supplies in comparison with poj)ulation 

 will take down their signs." 



To the value of the cotton lint must be added the value of the seed, 

 which in recent years has grown to a very large figure. Not so very 

 many years ago cotton seed was a nuisance to the planter and was 

 worse than worthless. It has now become worth more than $100,- 

 000,000. The seed from the crop of this year is estimated to be 

 worth about $117,000,000, or 6,3 per cent more than the average 

 value of the preceding five crops, but it does not equal the value of 

 the seed of the crops of 1909, 1910, and 1911, although it exceeds all 

 other 3'ears. Cotton lint and seed should be combined in stating the 

 value of the cotton crop. Together they are worth about $800,000,000, 

 or about half the value of the corn crop and a little less than the 

 value of the hay crop. In value as well as in production the cotton 

 crop of this year has been exceeded by only one year, and that was by 

 1911 for production and by 1910 for value. 



WHEAT, 



The wheat crop has lost ground in relative importance of value in 

 recent years. The crop of this year is estimated to be worth to the 

 farmer $590,000,000, an amount which was exceeded by the value of 

 the crops of 1909 and 1908, but no other year. However, it is nearly 

 2 per cent more valuable than the average crop of the previous five 

 years. 



The quantity of the crop, on the other hand, makes a much more 

 favorable comparison with the average production of the previous 

 five years, since it is 11.2 per cent greater. The wheat production of 

 this year amounts to 720,333.000 bushels, a quantity that was exceeded 

 by the 748,400,000 bushels of 1901 and the 735,261,000 bushels of 1906. 

 The crop of this year is third in size and was only 15,000,000 bushels 

 below the next higher crop and only 28.000,000 bushels below the 

 highest production that this country has had. This is a sort of double 

 crop, inasmuch as it is subdivided into spring and winter crops, and 

 had the winter crop of this year done as well as the spring crop did 

 the total of the two might have made a new record. 



OATS. 



Fifth in order of value is the oats crop. The production this year 

 was extraordinary. It reached an amount 46 per cent above the 

 largest crop previously produced, that of 1909, The season was 

 remarkably favorable to oats, especialh^ in the greater producing 

 States, The crop of 1912 was 1,417,172,000 bushels, or 51.5 per cent 

 greater than the average of the preceding five years. 



